Netflix Acquires Streaming Rights to 2019's Biggest Blockbuster

Netflix continues to up its game when it comes to original movies and TV shows, putting up absurd amounts of money with projects like Mowgli and Zac Efron's Ted Bundy movie. However, the streaming service made a move this week to land perhaps its biggest movie yet, albeit one many of you may not have heard of.

That movie is called The Wandering Earth, and it's being advertised as China's first mainstream blockbuster. Now, it's one thing to make bold claims like that, but the sci-fi epic is certainly backing them up. In just two weeks in theaters - only in China - The Wandering Earth has earned a massive $603 million. To put that in perspective, Avengers: Infinity War made $678 million in North America throughout its entire run at the box office.

The Wandering Earth is a massive hit no matter how you slice it, and Netflix is making a move to ensure everyone can see it. According to a report from Variety, Netflix has acquired the international rights to the movie, and it will be made available to stream on the service in every market outside of China.

At this point however, Netflix has provided no release date for The Wandering Earth, though it has been confirmed that the film will be translated into a total of 28 different languages.

“Netflix is committed to providing entertainment lovers with access to a wide variety of global content,” said Jerry Zhang, manager of content acquisition at Netflix. “With its high-quality production and story-telling, we believe that The Wandering Earth will be loved by sci-fi fans around the world.”

Directed by Frant Gwo, and based on Liu Cixin's novella of the same name, The Wandering Earth tells the story of a group of people working together to save the planet from an imploding sun.

“The movie is a majestic feast for the eyes with massive production scale rarely seen in Mandarin films,” Netflix said. “Its post-production and special effects work spanned two years, undergoing more than 3,000 conceptual designs, and featuring over 10,000 specifically built props, while employing an impressive 2,000 special effects shots and a substantial amount of computer graphics shots.”